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More info on these players can be found on the Switzerland country page on Hockeysfuture.

Patrick Bärtschi F (EHC Kloten)

Regular Season: 25 4 4 8 8

Playoffs: 5 0 2 2 0

Comments: EHC Kloten finished 6th and beat #3 seeded team Fribourg-Gottéron in 5 games to advance to semi finals where they will meet #1 seed HC Davos. Today Bärtschi has extended his contract for 2 more seasons.

Lukas Baumgartner D (EHC Kloten)

Comments: Baumgartner played the whole season for the junior team in the Elite Junior A league. Statistics are not yet available to me, but will be posted as soon as possible. Kloten juniors will play a decisive third game later this week with the winner facing SC Bern juniors in the juniors final. In the quarter finals Kloten, who ended 2nd in the regular season, swept EHC Biel/Bienne.

Romano Lemm F (EHC Kloten)

Regular Season: 0 0 0 0 0

Playoffs: 5 1 0 1 0

Comments: Romano Lemm has been promoted from the Junior team where he played with Baumgartner to play for the big club in the playoffs where he has started every game as of yet. Lemm, as did Bärtschi, extended his contract for 2 further seasons and is now contracted to the team till 2004.

Tobias Stephan G (EHC Chur)

Regular Season: 23 0 0 0 2 3.32

Playouts: 5 0 0 0 0 3.52

Comments: Stephan who played well during the WJC for Switzerland has been doing a good job on the worst team in the league which finished last with a dismal 9-30-5 record. EHC Chur therefor was to play #9 HC Lausanne in the playouts (relegation series) and w Read more »

At Kootenay, Tomas Plihal had one goal and two assists to lead the Ice,while Darren Lynch had one goal and one assist for Vancouver. Curtis Fransoo‘s first goal of the season turned out to be the game-winner in the thirdperiod.

At Medicine Hat, Andrew Bergen scored two goals and added two assists forthe Rebels while Bryce Thoma had one goal and two assists for the winners.Joffrey Lupul scored his 55th goal of the season for Medicine Hat.

At Kamloops, Frederik Sjostrom scored two goals and added one assist for theHitmen, while Brandon Segal added a pair of goals to the winners’ attack.Owen Fussey had one goal and two assists for Calgary, while Lance Morrisonadded four assists. Scott Upshall had three assists for Kamloops whileShaone Morrisonn had one goal and one assist.

At Moose Jaw, Caine Pearpoint scored a pair of goals to lead Brandon, whileEric Fehr added a pair of assists. Kyle Brodzik scored the lone goal for theWarriors, who were out-shot 43-14. Kyle Kettles made 38 saves in the MooseJaw goal.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE

There are four games on the Wednesday night OHL schedule. Ottawa is atBelleville, Br Read more »

What do the Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils have in common? First, they have split all of the last seven Stanley Cups amongst themselves. What possible reason is there that these four teams have been dominant over the last seven years? The answer lies within their other commonality, their franchise superstar and base of surrounding stars were built from there own great draft selections.

Colorado drafted Joe Sakic, their franchise superstar, and also drafted star players Adam Foote, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay, Martin Skoula and Chris Drury to compliment Joe. Dallas’ Mike Modano is their franchise superstar and a former first round selection. Dallas used draft picks to add Derian Hatcher, Jere Lehtinen and Jarome Iginla (who they used to acquire Joe Nieuwendyk) and this was the star base that took them to their Cup win. New Jersey’s franchise player, Martin Brodeur, was a Devils draft pick. They reinforced their lineup with superstar skill from the draft in the form of Scott Neidermayer, Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora. Finally, Detroit’s star player Steve Yzerman was a product of their amateur draft selections. They also added superstars Niklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Keith Primeau, Martin Lapointe and Chris Osgood from the draft.

If you look at the Leafs past decade of drafts, their top selections have never developed into anything more than role players. The only star they drafted, Kenny Jonsson, is far from a franchise player. Grant Marshall is a fourth line winger on Read more »

If this year’s Windsor Spitfires hockey club is going to pull off a first round “upset”, or any subsequent round “upsets”, everyone knows that three players will be key: goaltender Cory Campbell, defenceman Tim Gleason, and forward/superpest Steve Ott.

Accepting this as fact is not difficult, it’s obvious. But what if….Campbell slumps, Gleason gets injured, or Ott finds himself more in the penalty box than on the ice? Would this automatically spell the end of Windsor’s chances?

No, and here are three reasons why:

1) Goaltender, Ryan Aschaber.

Ryan is now in his third year with the Spitfires. He’s played in more than 75 games over this time and sports a very decent 3.51 career goals against average. Not your everyday, average, backup goaltender. Furthermore, having had to take a back seat — first to Michael Leighton, and now to Cory Campbell — Aschie would have plenty to prove. Now throw in the fact he’s well rested and voila, the Spits have got themselves a goaltender who could take them just as far as Campbell — if need be.

2) Defenceman, David Bowman.

David is in only his second year with the Spitfires; but with confidence way beyond his two years of major junior experience, Bowman patrols the blueline both swiftly and aggressively. As in swiftly he races to the dump-ins, aggressively he fires the puck off the glass and out. Or swiftly he races to the front of the net, aggressively he tries to move his opponent. Now throw in the fact that a good playoff run might just be the determining factor on whether or not he gets drafted thi Read more »

It’s time to say goodbye to Munich for Christoph Schubert. The 20 year old defender from the Munich Barons is willing to leave his hometown for another DEL team. Rumors have been present for quite some time. While being in Salt Lake City, Schubert finally announced his deal with his new team in an interview with the German broadcaster ‘Premiere World’. The Nuremberg Ice Tigers will be the team boasting Schubert in their line-up. Schubert, a Senators prospect, and Ice Tigers’ general manager Otto Sykora reached an agreement. Schubert will sign a two year contract starting next season. What’s the reason for leaving the Barons for the Ice Tigers? Both teams are comparable in talent and experience and both are Top 4 teams in the DEL. His playing time should theoretically be about the same as in Munich.

“I’ll try everything to reach the NHL” and he thought that a change of teams would help him to get more experience. That’s his official statement. However, it has been a curious season for Christoph Schubert. Barons’ General Manager Max Fedra told the media at the beginning of the season that “Schubert doesn’t play like a NHLer, but he thinks he’s one of them.” Fedra talked about his playing style and his arrogance. National coach Hans Zach agreed with him. A few days after that, Fedra and Read more »

The Halifax Mooseheads have been skating in front of their hometown crowd in the Halifax Metro Centre. Moosemaniacs have seen the offensive exploits of players like Alex Tanguay, who registered 47 goals in 51 games in 98-99. Others saw Ladislav Nagy put up 71 goals and 126 points in 63 games in that same 98-99 season. Many saw Ramzi Abid blaze onto the scene from Acadie-Bathurst, to go onto his best junior season with 158 points in 72 games. This season, the fans of the Halifax Mooseheads are seeing a different breed of potential superstar in the making; Louis Mandeville.

Mandeville burst onto the scene during the 2000-2001 season when his current junior team, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, dealt him to the Mooseheads. Since that trade, his game has shown nothing but improvement. He completed the season with 22 points in 28 games for Halifax, after registering only 17 points in 42 games with the Huskies. But the story of Louis Mandeville starts much earlier than that.

After a hugely successful year with Col. Lemoyne in Midget, Louis realized that he could have a shot at the NHL somewhere down the road.

“Probably in Midget AAA I had a really good season,” said Louis, “People were talkin’ about me so I thought about it a bit at that time.”

People continued to talk as Mandeville made the jump for Midget hockey into Major Junior with Rouyn-Noranda, however, deciding between Major Junior and College hockey was one that Mandeville was forced to ponder.

Mandeville could have either taken the Major Junior route, or through t Read more »

At the beginning of Tuesday night’s game at home against the Vancouver Giants the Kootenay were just three points back of the B.C. Division leading

Kamloops Blazers with three games to play in the regular season. At the end of the night Kootenay was just a point back of the Blazers with only two games left for each. Just over a week ago the Blazers were nine points up on the ICE, had a game in hand and had the division pennant all but hanging in the rafters of SportMart Place.

What a difference a week makes.

While the Blazers were in the process of losing their fourth straight to a Calgary Hitmen club that has now clinched a playoff spot in the WHL’s Central Division, the Kootenay ICE were having difficulty dispensing a pesky Vancouver Giant club that didn’t want to go away quietly. For the Giants the game was played purely for points in the pride column. Forced out of the playoff picture by a loss against the Seattle Thunderbirds last Friday, players on the coastal expansion squad were playing for jobs on the club next fall. That fact didn’t deter the club from being a thorn in the side of the ICE all night long. Being down by score of 2-0 and 4-1 and Kootenay poised to put them away for good, the Giants made things interesting and were down by only a 4-3 count with less than two minutes to play in the third frame before Kootenay put it out of reach with a 6-3 verdict on goals that included a fade-away lob-shot by Cole Fischer that fooled Giant netminder Jordan McLaughlin and an empty-net marker by Nigel Dawes.

A strong week for the Wild as they failed to lose a game during regulation –their only defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers in overtime – pickingup seven out of a possible eight points. Minnesota received strong offensivework from their top two lines, and solid goaltending from Dwayne Roloson andManny Fernandez.

Tue, Mar. 5: L 2-3 (OT) vs. New York Rangers– Blown 2-0 lead in the third period.